Trinity Toledo 2030 Vision

2 VISION 0 3 0 Come and See:

Building Christian Community Committed to Radical Transformation

Trinity Episcopal Church, Toledo, OH

Notes, Thoughts, Dreams

TRINITY'S

2030 VISION

TRINITY EPISCOPAL CHURCH, TOLEDO, OH

Come and see What follows is a vision for Trinity in the year 2030. This work began in the spring of 2019 and was finished and approved in 2021.

Written by a faithful community striving to discern God’s will, it paints a clear and compelling picture of a preferred future. The work evolved over two years, during which more and more people were invited into the process.

This final document is the product of more than 30 meetings, workshops, writing sessions, and parish-wide feedback.

We look to this final document to chart our course for ministry in the years ahead.

We will use this vision on a regular basis to set annual goals, create strategic plans, and keep us accountable to God and each other.

We thank all who invested so much. May this narrative be the compelling story we work toward together with God’s help in the months and years to come.

CONTENTS

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Introduction: Following a Radical Way of Love

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Congregational Vitality: Building up the Body of Christ

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Worship: Reverence and rejoicing through radical welcome

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Music: Making a joyful noise

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Spiritual Formation: Growing a community of learners and disciples

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Children & Youth: All are welcome and wanted

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Social Justice/Social Service: Respecting the dignity of every human being PAGE 10

Community Partnerships: Changing the world together PAGE 11

Community Engagement: Being the church in and outside of our walls PAGE 12

Trinity Episcopal Church 2030 Vision

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INTRODUCTION: FOLLOWING A RADICAL WAY OF LOVE Ten years ago, we embraced the idea of Trinity becoming a Christian community committed to radical transformation. That transformation is clear within our church, the broader community, social structures, and most importantly, in our lives.

As an intergenerational, multiethnic community, we remain committed to the work we began many years ago.

Today we see our on-site and online communities have more than doubled, reflecting the diversity of our neighborhood and city. We have learned how to best support people on their spiritual journeys. More than three quarters of our community is integrated into one or more ministries or small groups, with more than half of the community involved as servant leaders for ministry, groups, projects, We are a beacon of hope, healing, and service. Choosing courage over encouragement, and inclusion in Toledo and beyond. We stand in both a comfort, we remain active in the work of racial reconciliation and economic beautifully restored and reimagined building, and in a loving, liberating, and justice, collaborating with community life-giving online presence. We live into partners while affirming one of our five baptismal promises: our radical welcome and seek and To strive for justice and peace among serve God in all people and respond to all people, and respect the dignity of our neighbors’ changing needs. every human being.

Through God’s action in our lives and in our community, deep connections transform our lives.

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TRINITY EPISCOPAL CHURCH, TOLEDO, OH

It is 2030. Trinity is alive with energy, purpose, and passion. We honor our long-held identity as a progressive, inclusive, creative faith community.

Accessibility and relevance have been incorporated into that identity, as we welcome those who have yet to discover the love of God we have found together in this community.

Acknowledging that we are all both broken and blessed, we sustain one another living out Jesus’ Way of Love – through worship, prayer, study, giving, service, and advocacy – extending God’s revolutionary love in all that we say and do in every aspect of our lives.

We welcome questions and doubts as much as we appreciate deeply held convictions and faith perspectives; we believe God’s love has no limitations.

Within the Trinity community, God shows us we are better together: supporting the challenges of living a life of love in a world with hate; glimpsing clarity in a chaotic culture, and witnessing the wonder and joy of God’s presence in both the ordinary and the eventful. Trinity truly is Christian community committed to radical transformation. We live from a place of gratitude for God’s work in our lives and in our community, in and outside our walls, moving forward together ever hopeful. Walk into Trinity any day of the week and find signs of life everywhere.

Whether people are coming for worship, a concert or art exhibit, or to volunteer with one of our community partners, they find inviting spaces and radical welcome. We are intentional in our hospitality, seeking to offer the same care and concern for each stranger who walks through our doors as we do for one another.

Our welcoming spirit includes attention to accessibility. Our signage helps visitors navigate our historic building, now accessible with a new elevator.

Sign-language interpreters aid worship and live performances. Accessibility is also vital throughout our expansive digital presence, Trinity@Home, with all online events closed captioned.

The vitality of the community is reflected in growth in numbers and in spirit. Our worshipping community has doubled, and an ever-growing “softborders” community join us for activities beyond worship.

Relationships are enriched through movie nights, public forums, and popup dinners. Our church culture encourages members to naturally support one another, with prayers, meals, and rides. We show up for each other in times of tragedy and joy. In response to the experience of the extravagance of our Loving God, we give out of a sense of abundance.

Acknowledging the financial gifts of our spiritual ancestors, we share our own financial gifts with the church. Our planned giving program provides opportunities to serve the Trinity community well into the future. We measure our community’s vitality in many ways - qualitative and quantitative. Today we find ourselves overflowing with joy, compassion, generosity, and radical love - evidence that God’s Spirit is at work among and within us.

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TRINITY EPISCOPAL CHURCH, TOLEDO, OH

CONGREGATIONAL VITALITY: BUILDING UP THE BODY OF CHRIST

TRINITY EPISCOPAL CHURCH, TOLEDO, OH

WORSHIP: REVERENCE AND REJOICING THROUGH RADICAL WELCOME Weekly and special worship services continue to be the primary reflection and experience of Trinity’s radical welcome.

Through our liturgy, we combine our reverence for our rich Episcopal tradition with an expansive, modern expression of God’s love. We offer open-armed hospitality, accessible theology, creative expression, and deep connection to God and to one another. Community participation is a hallmark of our worship. Members of all ages participate in worship: lighting candles, proclaiming scripture, and offering personal reflections. Our teens and young adults have adopted our intercessory prayer ministry, praying with those who request it. We responded to 2020’s pandemic with a new digital expression of sharing God’s love through online worship, and that continuing ministry provides yet another loving and joyful vision of Jesus’ Way of Love.

We honor the liturgical seasons, exploring new ways to deliver the message of God’s love through prayer, ritual, and music. We create our own additional texts and music as another way to welcome many. The sum of all our worship aims to offer an experience of God's unconditional love, resonating through heart, soul, mind, and body.

Our willingness to, and success in, pushing the boundaries of Episcopal liturgy has drawn attention.

The book we wrote about our practices -a best seller for the publisher for three years -- details how we combine emergent spiritual expression with ancient liturgy, creating worship that leaves us filled with the joy of being fully alive. We are invited to present at least four times a year to dioceses across the Episcopal Church and other denominations.

It is exciting to see how our worship schedule has grown over the years. Today we have many days and ways to gather as a community. The 2020 pandemic pushed us from our worship comfort zone, and we have never looked back. We continue to grow and expand in membership and engagement through both in-person worship and Trinity@Home. We take pride in welcoming, through our doors and our digital presence, people looking for a way to follow Jesus, to proclaim the Good News, all while living into an expansive and progressive expression of Christianity.

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TRINITY EPISCOPAL CHURCH, TOLEDO, OH

MUSIC: MAKING A JOYFUL NOISE Music is an integral part of our worship, welcoming participation by members of all ages and levels of musical experience.

Opportunities include Trinity choir, Trinity’s singers, our children’s choir, our house band, Trinity bell ringers, and our ever-popular ukulele choir, with other musical groups organically forming and dissolving.

Our wide musical palette creates a unique soundtrack, pushing the boundaries of traditional church music.

We move seamlessly from full-bodied congregational singing to an a cappella high school choir; from chamber music to opera; from traditional hymns to gospel, from contemporary praise to jazz (including popular weekly jazz vespers).

The arts are also an important part of our liturgies within our sanctuary and online.

The visual arts, dance, drama, poetry, puppetry, and more invite participants to engage with worship more fully.

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TRINITY EPISCOPAL CHURCH, TOLEDO, OH

SPIRITUAL FORMATION: GROWING A COMMUNITY OF LEARNERS AND DISCIPLES Spiritual formation refers to all we do as a community, encouraging lives of deep faith, commitment, and reflection. Growing out of three of the five promises in our Baptismal Covenant, we ask: Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?

Classes and study groups explore our faith and view current events through that lens. Our annual all-parish retreat, planned and led by members, is one of our most well-attended activities, fostering a deep experience of God’s presence. We welcome the richness of interfaith gatherings and annually offer the Toledo Faith Speaker Series.

Will you persevere in resisting evil, and whenever you fall into sin, repent, and return to the Lord?

These gatherings build meaningful relationships and a more respectful understanding of the wide diversity of faith traditions throughout Toledo and the world. We are delighted when visitors say we are different due to what we offer.

Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?

We answer: We will, with God’s help.

Honoring the God-given diversity of our members, we nurture spiritual growth in a multitude of ways. Prayer partners and identity-based and topical small groups provide nurturing mutual support. .

We encourage members to try new things and ask for what they need. The result: a vibrant and dynamic spiritual community with multiple opportunities for visitors as well as new and longtime members.

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TRINITY EPISCOPAL CHURCH, TOLEDO, OH

CHILDREN & YOUTH: ALL ARE WELCOME AND WANTED Our commitment to the spiritual formation of our children and youth can be seen in worship. All ages worship together, even our youngest, so they grow up knowing that they are valued.

These hands-on worship experiences provide developmentally appropriate learning and tangible connection to our rich traditions.

Trinity’s children and young people know without a doubt they are wanted and welcome. Before or after our primary worship services, we offer formation opportunities for all ages.

Our youth group is vibrant, involved in service, social, and formation activities locally as well as in diocesan youth events and the triannual Episcopal Youth Events. .

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TRINITY EPISCOPAL CHURCH, TOLEDO, OH

SOCIAL JUSTICE/SOCIAL SERVICE: RESPECTING THE DIGNITY OF EVERY HUMAN BEING Our commitment to social justice and social service is based on Jesus’ example and the final two questions of our Baptismal Covenant. We ask: Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?

Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?

We answer: We will, with God’s help.

Our affirmative response encourages us to lean into the Way of Love. We learn through our own and other faith traditions, and we strive to be a welcoming, justice-seeking people, propelled by God’s love for us, and our love for God. We make a clear distinction between social justice and social service. With social justice, we educate ourselves and work to dismantle the structures that allow some groups to benefit while other groups are oppressed. With social service, we work with other organizations, providing direct services to our neighbors in need.

Both parts – working to dismantle oppressive systems while also providing support to those in need – are part of the work God has called us to do.

Today we embrace a model built on mutual respect and a generosity of spirit. We reach out to make connections with people in need. We walk side by side, offering our support and in return discover radical transformation. Our lives continue to be forever changed as we embrace kinship with our siblings and an ethic of working together rather than doing for others alone.

We believe God calls us to freedom, and no one is free until all are free. We urge all members of our community to use their hearts for caring, their feet for marching, their souls for praying, and their resources to support our collective holy work. In support of this call, the Trinity Response Team connects our faith community with opportunities to mobilize for community issues and events requiring education, conversation, advocacy, and witness.

Over the past 10 years, we have focused on gun violence, food insecurity, racism, human trafficking, young adults who age out of foster care, and LGBTQIA+ adolescents at high risk of being without shelter.

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TRINITY EPISCOPAL CHURCH, TOLEDO, OH

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS: CHANGING THE WORLD TOGETHER To seek and serve Christ in all persons, we identify unmet needs in our community, partnering with others to extend our reach. This process led us to offer free laundry services and haircuts to unhoused individuals, and use of our commercial kitchen by social entrepreneurs. Our community commitment is long term and nimble enough to respond to needs as they arise. We invest in relationships with area organizations, including other service-minded faith communities, Toledo Public Schools, agencies serving children and youth, food/employment providers, and housing advocates.

We recently celebrated a decade of support to young adults exiting foster care. We offer this often-invisible group, whose marginalization we’ve long recognized, an innovative groupmentoring model launched years ago at Trinity. We recently had our 25th participant finish this program, and our Better Together Toledo ministry is widely identified as a high-impact program.

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TRINITY EPISCOPAL CHURCH, TOLEDO, OH

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: BEING THE CHURCH IN AND OUTSIDE OF OUR WALLS Music and the arts expand our community engagement for activism and advocacy. We sponsor free community concerts, workshops, and lessons for all ages and abilities. Our partnerships with schools and arts organizations have led to programs such as our resident artist program, bringing in diverse artists for a season of workshops, master classes, performances, art installations, readings, and lectures. Both our sanctuary and community performance space are in high demand, reserved months in advance. We offer flexible options, ranging from one-time space rentals to integrated programs with full Trinity partnership.

The greater Toledo community uses our space in many ways: a nondenominational small-church music conference; dinners and event receptions; organizational retreats; performer auditions; concerts, recitals, plays, and poetry slams; and monthly dinners for youth aging out of foster care. People come as visitors, and many stay, finding a place of meaning, belonging and authentic community- a spiritual home.

Our building -- literally an offering to the community -- provides creative spaces for public use indoors as well as on our newly redesigned plaza. Our fees are clear, reasonable, and elastic when necessary.

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Notes, Thoughts, Dreams

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Notes, Thoughts, Dreams

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TRINITY EPISCOPAL CHURCH 316 ADAMS STREET TOLEDO, OHIO 43604 TRINITYTOLEDO.ORG TRINITY@TRINITYTOLEDO.ORG